“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie

Saturday, March 19, 2016

When GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump complains about foreigners taking away jobs from American citizens, he doesn't practice what he preaches. CNN Money did a followup story on the hiring practices of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida after the news outlet obtained additional data from the U.S. Department of Labor:

The U.S. Department of Labor has confirmed to CNN that between 2013
and fall 2015, Trump's Mar-a-Lago club posted 250 seasonal job openings
and filled four of those jobs with American workers. The club requested
the rest of the staff be temporarily imported through the Federal
government's H-2B visa process. Basically, Mar-a-Lago brings in its
seasonal staff from overseas.

Donald J. Trump

Mar-a-Lago is a mansion that Donald
Trump has turned into a members-only private club in Palm Beach,
Florida. The wife of New York stockbroker E.F. Hutton built it in 1927.
Mrs. Hutton, who would become Marjorie Merriweather Post, used
Mar-a-Lago as a winter retreat for her and her wealthy Wall Street
friends. Gilded in tile and other decorations, it reeked of the opulence
of the pre-Depression roaring 1920s: Think "Great Gatsby," flamboyant
parties, poolside waiters.

...

From 2013 to 2015, Mar-a-Lago was approved to hire 246 foreign
workers by the U.S. Department of Labor with H-2B visas, which allow
U.S. employers to temporarily import foreign workers to fill
non-agricultural jobs that can't be filled with Americans.

To get
approval for H-2B visas, employers must prove they need extra workers
and that they made an effort to recruit domestic workers, contacted
everyone who responded to ads and hired all qualified applicants. After
receiving approval, employers must petition U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services to bring foreign, temporary workers into the
country.

Trump has made the case that he couldn't find American
workers. "It's almost impossible to get help," the Republican
presidential candidate told CNN last month. "And part of the reason you
can't get American people is they want full-time jobs."

That is news to Tom Veenstra. He is senior director of support
services at the Palm Beach County CareerSource office. It's a free
service that links qualified job candidates with employers. And during
the past two years, the agency has placed more than 50,000 people in
jobs in Palm Beach County. Veenstra says he has no doubt he could fill
Mar-a-Lago with U.S. workers.

"We have hundreds of qualified
candidates for jobs like these," Veenstra told CNN. "That's what we do
here. We help place local residents into jobs like those."

Did
Trump use the free service? Only once, Veenstra says. After criticism
about its hiring practices, Mar-a-Lago asked the Palm Beach County
CareerSource office to send over qualified candidates for a single
position. Veenstra says he sent four applicants, one was hired.

Veenstra says there were no problems with the hire as far as he knows, but they never had another request from Mar-a-Lago.

Mar-a-Lago
positions paid roughly $10 an hour for maids and housekeepers going up
to $13 an hour for cooks, and about $11 for waiters and waitresses.

What is not reported is the why Trump would prefer to hire foreign
workers over local American citizens. The foreigners brought to work at
the hotel on H-2B visas can only work for Trump's resort. They can not
gain experience and then leverage better pay by going to work at another local resort. Trump did the same thing bringing in undocumented Polish workers to build Trump Towers and his modeling agency bringing in foreign models on H-1B visas.

This is yet more of the do as I say, not as I do attitude of the two-bit con artist known as Donald J. Trump.

About Me

I have been an attorney since the Fall of 1987. I have worked in every branch of government, including a stint as a Deputy Attorney General, a clerk for a judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals, and I have worked three sessions at the Indiana State Senate.
During my time as a lawyer, I have worked not only in various government positions, but also in private practice as a trial attorney handing an assortment of mostly civil cases.
I have also been politically active and run this blog in an effort to add my voice to those calling for reform.